Bradley Manning, the private accused of leaking documents to Wikileaks, has pled guilty to 10 charges that he possessed secret papers including diplomatic cables, field reports, and other classified materials, and that he released those materials to unauthorized persons. He has justified his actions by telling a judge that he wanted to let the U.S. public know about what was actually going on in Afghanistan. The judge will now decide whether to accept Private Manning's guilty plea. Private Manning indicated that he had tried to speak to the mainstream press, including the New York Times, before contacting Wikileaks, but did not receive a response. Prosecutors could still proceed with a court martial of Private Manning on other charges.

The ABA has pointed out that, as in "real" life, "virtual" life can pose pitfalls for judges who seem overly friendly to one side or the other. Be careful that your social media "likes" don't seem to endorse a candidate, a lawyer, or an organization, says the venerable lawyer's group in an ethics opinion issue February 21st. Here's a link to the text of Formal Opinon 462: Judge's Use of Electronic Social Networking Media. It reads in part:

The Model Code requires judges to “maintain the dignity of judicial office at all times, and avoid both impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in their professional and personal lives.” Thus judges must be very thoughtful in their interactions with others, particularly when using ESM. Judges must assume that comments posted to an ESM site will not remain within the circle of the judge’s connections. Comments, images, or profile information, some of which might prove embarrassing if publicly revealed, may be electronically transmitted without the judge's knowledge or permission to persons unknown to the judge or to other unintended recipients. Such dissemination has the potential to compromise or appear to compromise the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judge, as well as to undermine public confidence in the judiciary.

Will Silvio Berlusconi pull off a return to a top spot in Italian politics, even though he has faced scandal, (literal) trial, and possible jail time over the past year? It looks like it, after the recent Italian elections. More here from NBCnews.com, here from the National Post, here from CNN.

From the Hollywood Reporter: The Pirate Bay, the file-sharing site made famous for its willingness to infringe copyright laws, is abandoning Sweden's bandwidth for what it seems to consider friendlier digital shores in Norway and Spain. Meanwhile, the Pirate Bay itself is suing the anti piracy organization Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre (CIAPC), which is based in Finland, for copying its logo and stylesheet. More here from the International Business Times.

Ron Paul, former Representative and candidate for U.S. President, has filed a complaint with ICANN over ownership of the domain names ronpaul.com and ronpaul.org, currently owned by Ron Paul supporters. Dr. Paul says the current owners should give up the names because he has a common law trademark on his name. There is some dispute over whether the owners offered to sell Dr. Paul the names and if so, for what sum. More here from FoxNews, here from the Huffington Post.